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Occupez nos lieux de travail – Occupy our workplaces

This is a letter I wrote to The Canberra Times in response to an article in it on Wednesday about the situation in France. What do you think about what is happening there?

John

Philipe Marliere (‘The future of France is beginning to fight back’ The Canberra Times 20 October p 13) envisages two scenarios arising from the current situation in France.

One is that Sarkozy backs down on his reforms. The other is that he imposes them but loses the Presidential elections in 2012.

There is an alternative to this yo-yo between two versions of neoliberalism. That scenario is for French workers to run society themselves, without bosses.

It began to happen in May 68 when workers occupied their factories and offices, but the French Communist Party used its influence in the working class to save French capitalism.

Occupying their workplaces and offices is something some workers are considering right now in France. And clearly the French New Anticapitalist Party is not the French Communist Party and rather than holding back or diverting the struggle is supporting it.

If French workers do begin to occupy their workplaces, it opens up the possibility of a truly democratic society in which production is organised to satisfy human need. This is another way of saying socialism could be on the agenda in France and is in fact the only real solution to the intractable problems of capitalism in France and globally.